Author Nisi Shawl spoke at the Woodson Regional Library earlier month about the effect that author Octavia Butler had on her personally and professionally. She was there as part of the One Book, One Chicago series of programs and CPL’s celebration of American American Heritage Month. Did you get to go? If you did, please…

Adults, read along with us this winter and be entered in a drawing for a Chicago Public Library T-shirt or a copy of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, this year's One Book, One Chicago selection. This month, read a science fiction book or a nonfiction book on science or technology as part of this…

So you want to be an astronaut? You know it’s not really like Armageddon, right? (And you really hope it’s not like The Martian.) Because in real life, it’s a lot more like the movie Apollo 13. Speaking of Apollo missions, Apollo 8 was the first time humans went to the moon and back. They…

This season of One Book, One Chicago, featuring Philip K. Dick’s classic Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, we’re exploring all things science fiction with the theme Imagine the Future! Sci-fi movies and television, often based on books or stories, is one of the most popular genres right now. Take our quiz to see how…

Novelists and filmmakers have provided us with a number of fictional scenarios, both thrilling and terrifying, of the role artificial intelligence could play in our lives. But what does our future with AI really hold? There's recently been quite a bit of writing and discussion on this topic as AI has become more integrated in…

Writer, wife, mother, daughter, friend—all these words describe the amazing Madeleine L'Engle. On what would have been her 100th birthday (November 29), take a look back at what made Madeleine Madeleine. Then look forward to the writers who were inspired by this icon of science fiction writing for kids. Get to Know L'Engle Becoming Madeleine: Written…

Need help recommending books to your zombie friends? I visited with one recently and have some tips to share. Zombies like brains. They find them delicious. In a zombie's personal library, you'll often find an entire shelf devoted to the subject, including such mouth-watering recent examples as Unthinkable: An Extraordinary Journey Through the World's Strangest Brains…

The name "Frankenstein" conjures up images of a green, grunting monster stomping about with bolts in its neck. The monster was most notably portrayed by Boris Karloff in the Universal Classic Monster films of the 1930s. Frankenstein is, of course, Victor Frankenstein, created by 18-year-old Mary Shelley in her 1818 novel, Frankenstein, Or, The Modern Prometheus…